


Cold Snap

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-18 09:33:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16115678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: Tatsuya’s just going to have to try even harder to catch up, but he’d already known that.





	Cold Snap

**Author's Note:**

> platonic kagahimu for 10/4
> 
> takes place during tatsuya's last year of hs/after taiga moves back to la

The sun hasn’t cleared the trees yet when they trudge from morning practice in the gym to the dining hall, and Tatsuya’s wet hair feels like a little too much with the breeze. It’s not quite unpleasant, knowing what’s coming (last year he’d felt it more, because he hadn’t known) but it’s not a fun surprise. Fall means the Winter Cup, his last shot at glory; it also means ice and snow and no daylight, and more work (college application deadlines, ramping up practices) in what feels like less time. It also means the start of the NBA season.

And the start of Taiga’s season.

The coffee and cornflakes he serves himself seem too heavy to eat. If the dorms were any closer and he could slip out unnoticed, Tatsuya would consider just going back to bed and sleeping instead of going to chapel. It sounds appealing, but the rest of the team is filing in, sitting down next to him. The first-years are chattering about gossip, someone in their class got busted for drinking in his dorm room or something. Tatsuya drags his spoon through his cereal; he needs to eat before it gets all soggy and he needs carbs after practice.

Across the table, Atsushi is noisily eating his own breakfast, dipping a sweet bun in his chocolate cereal, and talking with his mouth full to try and distract Wei from the game of Flappy Bird he’s got going on his phone. Tatsuya looks back at his own bowl. He needs to get a fucking grip. He can’t get sad or angry or just fucking weird when he thinks about being stuck here when Taiga’s back in LA, conquering the world of American high school basketball. He’s the one who’d just decided that he’d have to be the one to go back first; he’d graduate and then Taiga would be the one to join him and they’d kick ass in college, together, and he’d start to catch up a little bit. Just a fantasy, with too many variables. And the one thing he’d thought was a given, that Taiga would stay here—for his father’s apartment lease, for his school friends, to beat all of those guys again, to face Tatsuya again while they’re on roughly the same level—turned out not to be.

It’s better for Taiga; Tatsuya hadn’t even thought about it more than in passing, but of course it is. But Tatsuya’s stuck, once again, left behind, not moving, a physical representation of his basketball skills, needling him. Things are good here; he should be happy. He’s still improving. there’s a lot he can get out of this league, if not simply from the competition then from being the captain and learning how to lead.

And he still resents not learning as fast as Taiga. Who can say if he wants it more? (He wants to say he does.) It would be worth nothing for him if it wasn’t with Taiga, if they couldn’t be competing against each other, but Taiga’s fine in this league of his own. So to speak.

Tatsuya bites his lip. He’s not being replaced by Taiga’s new teammates; it’s a dumb and ridiculous thought. He’s making this opportunity for Taiga all about himself, like he does with everything. He lifts the spoon into his mouth; the cornflakes are already a soggy mush like the ground after too much rain, but he swallows and washes it down with enough coffee. At least that’s still hot.

* * *

Tatsuya eats his lunch of leftovers alone in the classroom. Wei had jerked his head at the door and gestured to him; there won’t be too many more days nice enough to eat lunch outside, before brown leaves blow across their face and into their food, and their fingertips get numb from the cold. Tatsuya had shaken his head anyway, had an excuse about student council paperwork at the ready if needed. The truth is that he needs time to cool his head.

He stops himself from thinking about it when he can, daydreaming hard about cooking (until Taiga pops up there) or TV plotlines or team strategy. He doesn’t think about it when he’s practicing hard, pushing himself to the limits; he’s always had stray thoughts, wisps of missing Taiga, and he has enough self-control to stop them there. But it’s easy to have self-control when you’re jostling with guys two meters tall under the net. Not so much in the classroom when you’re waiting for school to just be fucking done already, or shoveling down cold meat and vegetables sitting at your desk.

Tatsuya’s phone vibrates in his pocket; he digs it out. He’s not in any mood to read a new email from Taiga, but letting his curiosity stew will be even worse.

_Hey, Tatsuya._

_I miss you._

Tatsuya turns his phone over, leaves it facedown on the desk, and buries his face in his hands. How can he doubt Taiga like this? Assign flightiness to him when he’d worn that goddamn necklace every day for nearly two years? Tatsuya can’t let go because his body stiffens around things and he’s too afraid and insecure to leap, but Taiga won’t let go even though he can. Whatever his reasoning, even after everything.

Having that start to the email makes reading it easier, the chatty accounts of Taiga’s classes and practices, old friends and places back home, restaurants that had closed and new places he’d like to go with Tatsuya. His new basketball friends, people he says he wants Tatsuya to meet—and, reading this, Tatsuya wants to meet them too. Even if he’ll be jealous, for five thousand reasons and in five thousand ways—that’ll come and go.

But for now it’s easier to put aside his fear and jealousy. Even if it comes from Taiga validating him, it’s a start; it’s something he wants to carry through. That he will carry through. Six months left, just about, until he can come home and join Taiga again. They’ve been through worse and come out okay on the other end. Six months, practicing with these guys here, while Taiga practices with the cream of the west coast high school crop.

Tatsuya’s just going to have to try even harder to catch up, but he’d already known that.

_I miss you too._

It’s just scratching the surface, but it’s enough for now.


End file.
